Apple's Monopoly

Why Everyone's Pissed Off At Apple

Last week, Google’s Chrome browser came out for the iPhone and iPad, and it seemed like Apple was loosening its approval restrictions on iOS apps. However, once the dust had settled, people realized that it wasn’t the browser they had expected. While the interface was cool and the bookmark syncing was what you’d expect from Google, the benchmarks showed that the speed couldn’t match Apple’s Safari browser on the same iOS hardware. Problem is, it’s no fault of Google’s — Apple just isn’t giving it access to the accelerated Nitro Javascript engine, which it doesn’t make accessible to other applications. Considering that most modern websites use Javascript for various elements, this hobbles Chrome on iOS to the point where it walks like a dude wearing a shirt that’s too big for him, who’d like you to think he got that limp in a drive-by.

To put the nail in the iOS Chrome coffin, Apple doesn’t let you change the default browser on iOS, so any time you click a link in an email, it will launch Safari anyway. It looks like Cupertino’s restrictions or “simplicity” are becoming more insidious, and these latest limitations are reminiscent of Microsoft’s tactics to limit Netscape on Windows XP. The words “Apple” and “antitrust investigation” are coming up increasingly these days, so Apple’s gambling by keeping things closed off. What some might call an innocuous “walled garden,” others call a tactic of a monopolist who wants to control what software people can run on Apple’s increasingly popular hardware.

In the EU, Apple is already being forced to adopt Micro-USB as a connection standard to counter its dominance of music docks and chargers. While this will be a nightmare for people who already own an iPod dock, it’s good news for consumers who want to buy a Samsung horn and a new set of speakers to beep it on. The U.S. is a little more laissez-faire when it comes to stuff like this, so I don’t see it forcing standards on companies just because they’ve been successful — especially not an American company. Anyone shocked at the suggestion that U.S. policymakers would play domestic favorites needs to get out more.

But, as iOS on Chrome shows, Apple’s success is increasingly a product of shady practices. Its incredible wealth has led to a dominance of the supply chain and lets it crowd out would-be competitors as it buys extended exclusivity of a manufacturing process. To complicate matters even more, it was just given a look-and-feel design patent on the MacBook Air’s wedge look. In March, Apple forced manufacturer Pegatron (not a Transformer, for those wondering) into dropping production of a competing ultrabook — and that was before it had the patent. Now that it's armed to the teeth, we're wondering how long it will take for the government to stop Apple from going nuclear on the competition. Hopefully it won’t just be scorched earth by the time that happens.